I Love You, Kitsunechan
by gungnirburst
Summary: When a new student transfers in, Naruto can't help but be drawn to him. But Gaara's shyness may be more troublesome than endearing for what Naruto has in mind. [ AU. Naruto/Gaara. Shy!Gaara. On hiatus. ]
1. The New Kid Looks Scary

Fanfic Title: I Love You, Kitsune-chan

Anime: Naruto

Pairing: Gaara x Naruto

Author: keadeblue264

Hello everybody! This is my first GaaNaru story and I am still digging myself in the "Hole Of So Far Incomplete Stories"!! *dramatic violin music* …Awwwwkwarrrrrd… I decided to try out a different font on this story. I usually use Times New Roman or Book Antiqua in italics, but I wanted to change it up a bit. You know, I freaking loooove Gaara even though he was a psychopathic serial killer. KEYWORD BEING WAS! But I love the prospect of a shy, innocent Gaara. He's just so cute when he's so innocent like! *fangirl squeal* So that's why he's gonna be the innocent one in this story! Get it? Got it? Good.

Summary: Gaara is the new kid at Naruto's high school. His looks belie his shy, innocent nature and that's what may have attracted Naruto in the first place. That and Naruto thinks he pretty freaking hot. But will Naruto be able to go over the road he needs to take in order for Gaara to like him or will it be riddled with bumps?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And that makes me sad… *starts to cry* Quick! To the emo corner!! *emofide "Batman" music begins to play*

Warnings/Notes: Boy-boy romance, Innocent! Gaara (cuuute!), AU (obviously). Not sure about anything else besides those few…I'll let ya'll know when I think of them.

Chapter 1: The New Kid Looks Scary

The bell rang throughout the hallways and the school day began as usual, numerous teenagers talking with their friends as they headed towards their first class of the day. The new school year had just started and today was the first day of the one hundred and eighty days the students would have to spend in their own personal hell as some called it. Most were just glad that the school board had finally decided to get rid of the uniform rule, meaning that the students could wear whatever they wanted as long as it followed the new dress code.

Lockers could be heard shutting from a short distance away and the occasional sound of a freshman dropping their books in the hallway was also heard. It would only be a matter of time before the poor freshmen would be under the wrath of the few seniors that got their kicks from seeing the younger students shake in fear. But it was the same old routine at this school as always as some of the older students would say. One of them was a seventeen-year-old who was in his senior year.

Uzumaki Naruto.

He was ready to get the hell away from this place as soon as possible and the only thing that stood in the way of his freedom were the one hundred and eighty god-forsaken days. And his adopted father Jiraiya. The old man made sure that Naruto stayed in this school, but it wasn't as if Naruto didn't like to go. It was just so boring day in and day out. Of course Naruto had his regular circle of friends that he had practically grown up with, but not all of them were always in the same classes together.

Like the one he was in right now. Ancient Japanese History. It practically had the word 'boring' written all over it, but Naruto had to take it anyway. The old man insisted it would be good for him and he needed the credit for the class to graduate anyway so it didn't really matter what Jiraiya said. The blonde sat in the middle of the seating arrangement with his hand on his cheek and his head to the side, ready for the bell to signal the end of first period. Since the uniform rule was repealed, Naruto decided not to go all out in the clothes department today. He was wearing baggy jeans, a white short-sleeve shirt, and a dark blue vest that matched his jeans. A small chain with the yin yang symbol attached to it dangled from his neck, the matching ring that came with it on his ring finger. He didn't really care if people thought it was stylish or not, as long as he had on clothes that suited him, he was content to wear whatever he could manage to get out of his closet.

The teacher walked in the classroom, the room's design mirroring that of a typical college classroom with somewhat tall bleacher-like stands with long pieces of wood that acted as the student's desk area and the bleachers were also fashioned so that the students had enough space to move around if they needed to.

"Alright class. My name is Hatake Kakashi and welcome to Ancient Japanese History. I know some of you really don't want to be here right now, but you know what? I don't either. I was assigned to this class because the other teacher quit and I was the only choice," the teacher said, a rather bored expression on his face.

But the students that he had already taught, like Naruto, knew he looked like that all the time except on rare occasions. He was already a rather odd looking teacher, his grayish hair defied the laws of gravity and he wore an eye patch over his left eye.

"By the way, if anyway of you are wondering about what happened to my eye, that's none of your business," Kakashi continued, earning a some whispers amongst the students.

Most of his old students would say he was only wearing the eye patch to look cool though they didn't really have any proof of that claim since he never told any of them either. But that didn't stop the rumor mill from kicking back into gear whenever he got a new student that had never seen him before. Rumors had been flying about the man ever since he started teaching at this school five years ago and the gossip train had some wild things to say about what he did on his private time. Some people said that he sold questionable material before becoming a teacher and those people still believe that he continues to sell his wares sometimes to earn a little side money.

But despite the accusations, he managed to keep his job for the last five years. The principal usually demands proof of foul play and because no one had any actual evidence to support the abundant claims, the matter was dropped and forgotten by the principal and the rumors steadily stopped, but they always started back up eventually.

Kakashi started to write on the chalkboard when a knock was heard at the door.

"They always knock when I'm ready to get started," Kakashi said to himself, putting down his chalk and opening the door slightly.

"May I help you?" Kakashi asked the woman standing at the door.

"Can you come outside please? I have a student here who was transfered to this school at the last second and he's supposed to be in your class," the woman answered.

Kakashi sighed a little and exited out of the door, closing the door tightly behind him. As soon as the door closed, the students talked loudly and without a care.

"So Naruto, what do you think the new kid is like?"

Naruto looked over to his right and saw Inuzuka Kiba, one of his best friends since grade school. Kiba had a doggish appearance, which inherently earned him the nickname "Inu" among his friends.

"I don't know, Inu," Naruto said, deciding to call Kiba by his nickname, "He--"

"Or she," piped the pink-haired girl sitting to next to Kiba.

"Ok Sakura. Or she might just be some meek freshmen or something."

Haruno Sakura was also one of his best friends since grade school. He always questioned himself about whether or not her hair was naturally pink, but he had never seen her hair a different color. There was only one way to find out about her real hair color, but Naruto wasn't about to get on her bad side just because he was curious about the authenticity of her hair.

"Ahh freshmen. They keep getting smaller and smaller every year," Kiba said.

"I know. I just saw one that was like half my height," Sakura added.

"No kidding," Kiba said back.

"Yeah. I--oh! Hold on a sec," Sakura said and pulled out her cell phone, hiding it carefully between the section that stuck out from the desk area and her lap.

"Sakura, please don't get in trouble for texting Ino this year," Naruto warned.

"Don't worry. I'm being extra careful this year."

"I'm just telling you to be careful. You don't want them to have to confiscate your phone again, do you?" Naruto asked, receiving a cringe from the pink-haired teen.

Yamanaka Ino was another person in Naruto's friend circle, but she was spent most of her time with Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata, the only other girls in their group, than with him or any of the other guys lately.

"Besides, that's what you said last year," Kiba reminded her.

"I know I said that last year. You don't have to rub it in my face," Sakura replied, her thumbs moving back and forth across the phone's keypad.

"I give it a month," Naruto whispered to Kiba.

"Two weeks tops," Kiba whispered back.

"Don't you dare make any bets," Sakura forewarned, squinting her green eyes at the two boys.

"We won't Sakura," Kiba and Naruto said in unison.

"Oh like I'm gonna believe that," Sakura said, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Come on, Sakura. You can trust--"

Before Naruto could finish talking, Kakashi came back in the room with a pile of papers tucked under his right arm. Everybody else had quieted down with the reappearance of the teacher. All of the students in the classroom were anxious about what the new student would be like.

"Okay. As some of you may have heard, we have a new student entering our class. He was originally home schooled so please be nice and try to make him feel comfortable," Kakashi said before turning his head towards the door, "You can come in now and please close the door behind you."

A brief moment passed by before a red-haired teen came into the classroom. Some people gasped at him while others just stayed quite. The boy looked intense and it scared some of the younger students. The teen closed the door like he was told and stood next to Kakashi.

"Everyone, this is Gaara," the gray-haired man said.

Gaara bowed slightly and said, "Hello."

Gaara was like the love child of the goth lifestyle. He was wearing black pants with wide leggings with a chain attached to two of the belt loops and a long-sleeved black shirt. It also looked like he was wearing thick black eyeliner around his eyes. Some would've said he was over applying to the extreme while others had already started calling him "Raccoon Boy". Gaara even had a tattoo of the kanji for love on his forehead.

"Ummm. Is it just me or does he look scary?" Sakura whispered.

"Depends. Are you taking about the way he looks or how he is practically giving all of us the death glare of the century?" Kiba whispered back.

"The glare."

"Oh. Then yes he looks kinda scary. What do you think, Narut—aww crap…It's happening already."

"What—oh no. Not again," Sakura groaned.

They immediately recognized the look in Naruto's eyes as he stared at Gaara. It was the same look he gave the last new student, Uchiha Sasuke. That look started their entire conflicted relationship, from dating for six months to absolutely hating each other. Naruto's friends knew about his sexuality and supported him as much as they could, but Naruto hit a bump in the road when he had started dating Sasuke when he transferred to their school last year and after six months, Naruto realized how much of a jerk Sasuke was and broke up with him.

"Naruto, please think about this before you rush into things. You remember what happed with Sasuke, don't you?" Sakura whispered to the blonde.

"Uh-huh," Naruto said back, obviously not paying a lot of attention to what Sakura had just said.

"Yep. It's too late," Kiba said, a weak smile on his face.

"Alright then. Let's get you seated somewhere," Kakashi said to Gaara, "Hmm. Why'd don't you go sit next to Naruto for now?"

Most of the students silently sighed, relieved that the strange new student wouldn't have to sit next to them.

Kakashi pointed Naruto out to Gaara, who only looked up to see where he would be sitting and didn't even notice the look the blonde was giving him.

Sakura huffed a little before saying, "Kakashi-sensei did that on purpose. I bet he saw how Naruto was looking at that kid."

"Well, you've got to hand it to him. Whether he means to do it or not, he knows how to make a situation worse," Kiba said, feeling the sweatdrop roll down his face.

By the time Kiba had finished his sentence, Gaara had already gathered his things and sat down next to Naruto. But there was about two feet of space between them and that made Naruto puff up a little on the inside.

"Hey there. I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said to the redhead, offering his hand out for a friendly handshake.

"Hi," Gaara said back, not looking at Naruto and ignoring his hand.

Sakura, on the other hand, was about to explode from annoyance when she saw the way Gaara disregarded Naruto like that. She also was not paying a spec of attention to Kakashi's lesson or the fact that her phone had started vibrating in her pocket again. Kiba just felt like the middleman in the situation and decided it would be best to stay out of it completely.

Naruto retracted his hand and continued, "So…what year are you anyway?

For the first time since he had gotten in the classroom, Gaara looked at Naruto. A sudden blush rushed to his face and he turned his head back to the chalkboard. Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked at his two friends, who both had the same 'what the fuck was that' look on their faces.

"…I'm a senior," Gaara answered finally, his voice bordering on a whisper.

"So are we," Naruto said, pointing to himself and his two associates, "Anyway, I wanted to know what--"

The fire drill bell rang and cut Naruto short, the other students acting all giddy about being able to leave class even if it was only for about five minutes. Kakashi, on the other hand, was once again complaining about being interrupted during one of his lessons, but his former students knew he would get over it eventually. The fire drill ended a few minutes later and all the students and faculty returned to their respective classrooms and offices. Kakashi continued his lesson though few people actually paid enough attention to care what he was talking about.

Naruto attempted to continue his conversation with Gaara, but the only kind of reply he got from the redhead was either a nod of his head or some sort of short sentence, a slight blush reappearing on his face every once in a while. The blonde figured that Gaara wasn't the talkative type and ultimately stopped talking. Surprisingly, Kakashi doesn't really care if people talk quietly during his lessons. As long as they don't speak too loudly and manage to get notes from other classmates, the only thing he really cares about is actually finishing the lecture. This kind of attitude gave him the reputation of the lazy, carefree teacher in the school, but there had to at least be one in the place for it to seem slightly normal.

The bell that singled the end of first period rang and the students rushed headfirst into the hallway. Gaara was also one of the first ones out the door, leaving Naruto behind in the classroom.

"Well, he sure was quick to leave," Sakura commented, gathering her books into her arms, "So anyway, what did you two talk about?"

"Nothing much really. He didn't really say a whole lot," Naruto replied, walking down the steps and heading towards the open door.

"I realize he's the new kid and all, but he could at least talked to you a little bit. And what the hell was with all that blushing?"

"Sakura. Please quit attempting to be a critic about things. You have a bad habit of doing that," Kiba said to the pink-haired girl.

"I do not," Sakura said back, sticking out her tongue.

"Anyway, at least you did get to talk to him a little…despite the wall covering his face," Kiba said to Naruto, motioning his hand around his face for emphasis.

"Yeah yeah, say what you like, Kiba, but I'll be the one laughing last," Naruto said, stopping at the door.

"Why's that?" Sakura asked with her head tilted to the side in confusion.

"Because I'm gonna get Gaara to go out with me," Naruto answered before racing out the door, not seeing the surprised looks on Sakura and Kiba's faces.

"He's such an impossible bastard," Sakura and Kiba said at the same time, both thinking that the poor blonde was going to get hurt all over again.

But what they did not know was that Naruto already had a plan at the ready this time and for all intents and purposes, he was going to get Gaara to open up to him at least a little bit. At least, that's what he hoped anyway.

Author's Notes: Yay! The end of chapter one! *does a clumsy dance and falls over* …What?? I have no coordination whatsoever and that was the best I could do on short notice. By the way, I'm sorry about the awkward summary…it was the only thing I could think of. I wanted to make this chapter a little longer, but I figured I had to put a stop to it before it got too long and out of control. _! I usually try to keep chapters between 6-9 pages long (that doesn't include author's notes, summaries, and warnings), but I sometimes end up coming up a little short. I did that in one of the SasuNaru stories I'm working on (it came up to about 5 pages including all the extra stuff)…I'm trying to make it a little longer before I publish it. Anyway, see you guys in chapter 2!! And read and review dammit!!


	2. Makin' a Mess in Art Class

OMG chapter 2! I just realized a little while back that 1) I have no idea how long this story is going to be and 2) It could go on FOREVER. Especially since the first chapter is kind of short and long at the same time. Of course I keep to the 7+page quota on the Word file, and that's including everything on the page, but the contents of the chapter don't really span out, if you know what I mean. For example, Chapter 1 was just 1st period and this chapter-- *pause* Well, you've got to read it to find out, but it is short in the same way. I mean god, not even high school animes cover that little amount of an actual school day in 1 episode! So don't be surprised if I end up doing 20+ chapters. _! Oh the unadulterated horror… Would you guys actually want to read 20+ chapters for this story?? Anyway, please enjoy.

Oh yeah…about the whole font thing…apparently it changed to Times New Roman when I published it. I had it on Arial Narrow on the actual Word file…yeah I don't know. Now it is time for the second installment of 'I Love You, Kitsune-chan'! By the way, the title of this story will make sense later on in the story, just in case any of you patient darlings were wondering.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…dammit. Holy curses, Batman! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

New warning: Yeah, I shoulda warned you guys about this in the first chapter, but I didn't really think about it. Bad language. -_- …I feel kinda stupid to have warn you people of cussing… Anyway, it won't be too overbearing. I'm not really a believer in overexcessive cussing. You know, like saying the word or variation of the word 'fuck' five times in a sentence. That's just overdoing it.

Chapter 2: Makin' a Mess in Art Class

Second period passed by quickly for Naruto, the rest of the world not really present in the blonde's mind. All he could think about was Gaara. He knew it was borderline obsessive, but he figured that it could be worse. At least he didn't have some sort of shrine for the redhead. None of his regular friends were in his second block class anyway so that and the fact that the teacher didn't really give them anything to do made it all the more easier to let his mind wander into his private daydream land.

Third block was where he really wanted to be. Mostly because it meant that lunchtime was closer and he wanted to see if his friends would be in it with him, maybe even Gaara. Plus, it was a class that he knew he was going to enjoy, even if it would only be a little bit.

Art. A class that practically promoted its students to make a completely and utter mess with whatever materials they had in order to do get whatever assignment they were doing finished.

Naruto didn't really consider himself an artist. In fact, he was hardly any good by any means when it came to doing anything art related. He only signed up for the class because there was nothing else on the curriculum that seemed to interest him and he thought it might be fun. Or at least help him draw better.

The bell that signaled the end of second block rang and Naruto made sure to bolt out of the door that contained this bore-fest of a class as fast as he could manage. Daydreaming was nice, but it could only take up one's time for so long before it also got as tedious as the thing you were trying to distract yourself from in the first place.

Naruto put all of his books and other miscellaneous items into his locker, knowing he wasn't going to need much for his third block. All that was on the supply list for Art was a pencil and that could be easily put into one of his pockets. He was beginning to like the class already and he wasn't even in it yet.

Just because he only needed to take a pencil.

When he got to the art room, which was conveniently located a few feet from his locker, the teacher wasn't there at all. Naruto figured he was a little early because there was only one student in the class. The room had five different tables in it with an assortment of chairs scattered all over the floor. All of the tables were adorned with drawings and paintings on the top, most likely works of art by previous students. But he didn't really pay any attention to the contents of the room because he saw that one person in particular was in the room, practically sighing out loud in relief at this person's presence.

Hyuuga Hinata.

'The Art Queen' and 'The Poetry Mistress' as her friends called her depending on what she was doing at the time. She never really took to the names though since she was shy most of the time. It always seemed like there was a constant blush on her face for no reason at all. Expect when she was working hard on something that she had a certain passion for. Then it was like she was an almost completely different person.

Giving Hinata a casual wave, he sat down next to her at one of the tables.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. I didn't realize that you signed up for Art," Hinata said after Naruto sat down, a smile on her face.

Naruto was still surprised at the fact that Hinata had almost entirely stopped stuttering when she talked to him. At first, she used to stutter all the time, especially if she was meeting someone new. But after getting to know someone, her stammer would decrease to a bare minimum. When they first got into high school, however, Hinata had started to trip over her words again, but it was only when she talked to Naruto. Some time after Naruto told his friends about his homosexuality, Hinata revealed that she had been crushing on him.

It took some time for the stutter to almost disappear again when she talked to him, but Naruto would find himself missing it sometimes because he thought it was cute.

"It was either this or some other thing that I either had no talent in whatsoever or something that would be boring for me," Naruto replied.

"Well, you're here now so that's a good thing," Hinata said.

"Yep. So how many people are gonna be in here anyway?"

"Not many. Including us, only about four maybe."

"You're kidding," Naruto said in a surprised tone.

"Nope. Not a whole lot of people signed up this year for some reason."

He thought on what she said for moment then asked, "Then why are we even having the class?"

"Well, you know that the principal is big on art and all that. I figure that he didn't want to cut the class out this year because of a low number of students."

"Well, that's stupid then," a female voice said.

Naruto and Hinata turned around to see Yamanaka Ino, or 'Miss Drama', standing next to their table.

"Hi Ino," Naruto said.

"Good afternoon, Ino-chan," Hinata said politely.

Ino said down across from the two, placing her oversized pocketbook on the table. Naruto had no idea about the contents of any of Ino's bags and in all honesty, he wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could stand.

"Uh-huh. Anyway, do you know who else is gonna be in here, Hinata?"

"Wait a minute. Why the hell are you even in this class, Ino?" Naruto asked before Hinata got the chance to speak.

Ino wasn't exact the art type. She was more into planting and caring for flowers than anything else in particular. Naruto half-expected her to take some sort of agriculture class or some other sort of class that involved plants in any way.

"Hinata convinced me to sign up. Well, Hinata?"

"I know that Neji signed up also. But I don't know about the other two."

Hyuuga Neji was Hinata's cousin and also a part of Naruto's friend circle. Even though they were cousins, they looked as if they could be brother and sister and that caused confused from people that didn't know about their actual family relations.

And almost on cue, the other three finally entered the classroom, barely beating the 'you better be in your class or your ass is gonna get busted for being late' bell. Obviously, the first one to enter was Neji, who promptly sat down next to Hinata. To Naruto's relief and joy, the second one was the new kid, Gaara. But the third one made his stomach turn and his mood sour considerably.

Uchiha Sasuke.

The vain of Naruto's existence, the thorn in his side, the pain in his ass, and many other nasty things that would be too impolite to say in public. Naruto could've gone a very long time without having to see Sasuke again, but God, not to mention the school system, were against him. Naruto thought that the way you feel about some of your ex's was interesting. Some you could be fine with on a regular basis while others you wanted to drop of the face of the planet as soon as you broke up.

Gaara took a seat close to the back of the room, Sasuke not too far behind except that he sat at a different table.

"You know, Naruto-kun," Hinata began, "it's not too late to transfer to a different class."

"Oh he's not gonna do that," Ino said.

"What makes you so sure?" Neji asked in his usual quiet tone.

"Because he has his sights on that new kid back there," Ino whispered back.

Hinata gasped a little and looked at Naruto before asking, "Is that true, Naruto-kun?"

"Yes, but how did--"

"Sakura told me," Ino answered before Naruto could finish his question.

"I should've guessed as much," Naruto said back.

"Hmm. That's interesting," Neji said suddenly.

"Maybe to you, but--"

"No, not that," Neji said, interrupting Ino, "Look at the chalkboard."

Apparently, no one else in the class had noticed the writing on the board their teacher had most likely put up sometime that morning. It read:

"I'm sorry that I can't be here on the first day, but I've got other, more important business to attend to. Do whatever you like so long as you stay in this room and be quiet."

"That's just great," Ino said after she finished reading.

"How irresponsible," Neji said, pulling a book out of his bag.

"Well, since we can do whatever we like, I'm going to paint," Hinata said, getting up from the table.

"Yeah, I'll just watch if that's okay," Naruto said.

"Sure," Hinata replied, giving him a warm smile.

Naruto and Hinata walked up to the front of the room where all of the painting supplies were. Paints of all different colors and canvas of several variations could be found in the cabinets and after Hinata started sketching out a design on her chosen canvas, Gaara walked up to the front of the room as well.

Because there was not much space at the front of the room to set up more than one canvas, Gaara had no choice but to set himself up close to Hinata and Naruto. Naruto decided to look around the room for a bit before he would give the painting Hinata was working on his full attention. Neji was too absorbed in his book to really notice anything and Ino had her phone out, texting like there was no tomorrow. Sasuke, on the other hand, just sat in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest, an uninterested look on his face. That is, until Sasuke caught Naruto's eyes on him, causing him to break out into a confident smile.

While Naruto was the one that broke them up, Sasuke was still interested in Naruto, almost to an unusual degree. Naruto tried to avert his gaze, but his past and currently present attempts never worked because he could never seem to makes his eyes look away, whether it was while they were dating or right then.

"Wow! That's really good!" Naruto heard Hinata's voice say.

Thanking God that Hinata had spoken aloud, he looked at her then looked at the direction of her eyes, which were currently fixated on the sketch on Gaara's canvas. Naruto's eyes widened when he really got a good look at what Gaara was working on. The drawing was of mountain scenery with snow-covered mountains tops and cloud slivers hanging low in the sky. The idea itself was pretty basic, but the way Gaara drew it almost made it seem like it was real.

"Th-Thank you," Gaara said back.

"Yeah, it is really good," Naruto said, casting sideways glances at Sasuke, who had stopped smiling.

Naruto didn't know a lot, but one thing he did know was how to drive an ex crazy, particularly if they were still hooked up on you. Just talking to another person usually peeved most of them, but openly flirting with someone in front of their face always worked like a charm. The only problem was how to go about it. He didn't want to creep Gaara out by being too forward, but he did want to get his point across. His only choice was to be subtle, but he didn't exactly have anything to work with.

But that's when he spotted the open container of red paint next to Hinata.

"Hey, Hinata, could you help me with something?" Naruto whispered.

"Sure. What is it?" Hinata asked.

Naruto whispered what he was planning in Hinata's ear. When he finally stopped speaking, Hinata giggled a little, obviously amused.

"Well, I have to say that of all the things you've schemed in the past, this one takes the cake for originality," Hinata said.

"Well, I'd like to see you come up with something better considering the situation."

"Ok ok, I'm just kidding. I guess it's better than nothing. But what about Sasuke?"

"Does it look like I give a damn about what he thinks?" Naruto asked seriously.

"No, but you never can tell what he'll do next. Just be careful, ok?" Hinata answered.

Naruto could tell that Hinata was sincerely worried about the outcome of his little flirtatious game, but he would rather think about the consequences after it was all said and done with. But he knew he could count on at least Hinata at the moment if something bad went down. After a few minutes of waiting, Hinata finally did what Naruto asked her to do. She "accidentally" spilled red paint all over Gaara's right arm. Thankfully for him, Gaara had rolled up his sleeves before he had started so the paint didn't get on his shirt, but it did get on the floor.

"Oh my! I-I'm sorry!" Hinata said, feigning shyness a little bit.

Naruto had to chuckle to himself quietly. Hinata was really playing it to its fullest.

"I-It's o-ok," Gaara said quietly, looking at his paint-covered arm.

"Hey, there's a sink over there. How 'bout I help you get that paint off?" Naruto asked, already grabbing the redhead's other hand and leading him towards the sink not five feet away from them.

"N-No, I-I can do it myself," Gaara said quietly.

"Oh come on now. I just wanna help."

Naruto turned on the water when they reached the sink and looked back at Gaara with a smile. With a deep red blush on his face, Gaara finally gave in and nodded his approval. Naruto gently took the boy's paint covered arm and placed it under the flowing water, running his hand over the stain in an attempt to get it off faster. Gaara wasn't really looking at what the blonde was doing, but he could still feel it and it made his face all the more redder. While Naruto was cleaning Gaara's arm, he let his gaze wonder over to Sasuke and, to his dismay, he saw that the Uchiha was glaring at Gaara. Sasuke's jealous glare struck a rather large nerve in Naruto and he wasn't about to just stand there and let Sasuke do what he liked. And that's when he spotted them.

Water balloons.

With a devious smirk on his face, Naruto reached over and quietly grabbed a yellow water balloon.

"W-What are you doing?" Gaara asked when saw Naruto holding the balloon under the tap.

"You'll see," Naruto replied hastily.

Naruto let the water fill the balloon up until it was almost to the top and tied the balloon up nice and tight. Gaara cast an unsure glance at Naruto until he noticed that all the paint on his arm was gone. He figured it would be a good idea to get back to his painting, but before he could even move, Naruto placed his hand on the redhead's shoulder.

"Stay here for a sec. I need you to be my cover," Naruto whispered, waiting for a leeway.

While Sasuke had his head turned away from them to look at some of the drawings hanging on the wall, the blonde took his chance and threw the water-filled balloon at Sasuke's head. The balloon successively hit its target, water falling on his head when the balloon busted. Everyone else just stared for a moment, the tension finally sliding over when Ino began to laugh uncontrollably. Hinata had her hand over her mouth, shaking from restrained laughter. Neji, on the other hand, only smiled whereas Gaara was just casted worried looks between a smirking Naruto and a glaring Sasuke.

Meanwhile in the hallway, one of the gym teachers, Yuhi Kurenai, was just doing her usual patrol around the school, but she stopped when she heard various crashing and banging noises coming from the art room.

She opened the door and shouted, "What's going on in here?!"

There was water, not to mention more paint, all over the floor, the canvases at the front of the room were broken in half, and most of the art supplies had fallen on the ground. Ino and Neji were hiding under their table, surprisingly dry considering that there was water just about every place one could look. Hinata was sitting on the teacher's desk, her dark hair dripping with water, and Gaara was standing haphazardly on a box in the corner. Naruto and Sasuke, however, were on the wet floor, Sasuke hovering over the blonde. But one thing that they all had in common at the moment was that they were all staring blankly at Kurenai.

"What have you all done?!" Kurenai yelled.

They were all stark silent.

After waiting for a few moments, Kurenai finally said, "Well, since no one in here is willing to tell me anything, I guess I have no choice but to give all of you detention."

The room was suddenly filled with agitated sighs and groans, the loudest one coming from Naruto. Jiraiya was gonna be so pissed at him when he got home.

Author's Notes: And chapter 2 is done! *tiny me pops out and says "Yay!"* Umm right… *plucks tiny me away* Anyway, the reason why the Art teacher wasn't there, besides the reason that was written on the chalkboard, is because I didn't know who I wanted to be the Art teacher. The only reason I made Kakashi the Ancient Japanese History teacher was because I couldn't think of anybody else that I could easily work with at the time and well, it kind of amused me. And I know that most of you are gonna be like 'Why don't you make Deidara or Sasori the Art teacher?' Well, I want the teachers to be Konoha peoples, but if push comes to shove and if I am unable to think of a Konoha person to be the Art teacher, then I'll pick one of them. But that'll be hard too because they're both awesome. Antyways, please leave me a review before you go!


	3. Detention Naruto An Angry Sakura

Ahh yes, Chapter 3 is here. By the way, I should've said this way earlier, but I have no Internet at my house so my updates will be slow at best, but that depends on what I get done in my free time at home before going over to friend's place with Internet access. I try to go at least every 3 weeks or so, but I'm hoping that I can go to my bestest best friend's house for the summer so the updates will probably be quicker after I get there. So yeah, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And to quell my sadness at this fact, I'm going sit my butt in this chair with my tired eyes open and rock out to Gackt on my iPod. *10 second pause* It doesn't fill the void!!

Chapter 3: Detention + Naruto = An Angry Sakura

"You did what?!" Sakura yelled at Naruto from across the lunchroom table they were occupying.

Naruto just sat quietly in his chair, instead choosing to nibble solemnly on the chocolate chip cookie that Hinata had given him a few minutes prior. He was happy that all his friends had the same lunch period as him, but that happiness didn't last long because of Ino's tendency to be a really big blabbermouth. By the time he had sat down and gotten himself mildly together, Sakura was already on his ass about what had happened in Art class. He was already getting a minor headache from all of the noise of the lunchroom, but this was almost like pouring salt on an open wound.

"Come on, Sakura-chan. It wasn't his fault…at least I don't think it was," Hinata said rather unsurely.

"Normally, I would believe you, but since this involved Sasuke, I'm having a hard time accepting it," Sakura said with a slight grimace.

"Well, I can't help it if he pissed me off," Naruto said, finally breaking out of his previous quietness.

"Oh really? And just how did he manage to do that?"

"Uhhhh."

There was definitely bad blood between Naruto and Sasuke ever since their break-up last year and everyone in Naruto's friend circle, not to mention a good majority of the student body, knew of it all to well. Or at least that was Naruto's side of the exchange anyway. Besides still being interested in him, Sasuke did get annoyed with Naruto's actions and behavior every now and again, but it otherwise didn't deter him in the least when it came to wanting the blonde back in his clutches. Naruto thought he made it pretty clear when he broke up with Sasuke that he didn't want anything to do with the Uchiha, but like a determined dog that really wanted a specific bone out of a bunch of otherwise unsuitable ones, Sasuke kept a moderately subtle approach, only striking when he felt the opportunity was just right for the taking.

But now that he was thinking about it, Naruto felt that what he did in the Art room wasn't exactly the best idea of the century when it came down to it. He didn't regret it in anyway possible, but now that Sasuke knew that Naruto was going after a potential new piece of eye-candy, he figured that Sasuke was going to come after him twice as hard for it and maybe even try to interfere in Naruto and Gaara's relationship that was still balancing itself on a thin string, ready to snap itself in half at any given moment.

Needless to say, Naruto was practically the king of the phrase 'It sounded like a good idea at the time'.

Sighing in an exasperated fashion, Sakura asked, "Was it one of the 'Sasuke looks' that ticked you off or something?"

"You could say that was apart of it," Naruto grumbled back, finishing off his cookie.

To Naruto, the infamous 'Sasuke looks' were always annoying and deserved a good retaliation, if not a full, completely blown out of proportion fight. Something about them just got under his skin and plucked heavily at his nerves, which, at the end of the day, ended up being one of the numerous ignition keys that caused their previous romantic relationship to drastically blow up in their faces and leave them on volatile terms.

"Look, I know you don't like Sasuke, but did you really have to go so far as to pick a fight with him?"

"Not to mention get a detention for yourself and the rest of us that had nothing to do with it," Neji sighed.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that Kurenai-sensei was in the hallway?" Naruto asked.

"I'll give you that one, but you had better be glad that I'm not the type to rat out a friend. Otherwise, I would not even thought about earning myself a trip to detention on the first day of school by deciding to not be a tattletale."

"And that's another thing I'm mad about," Sakura started, "This is the first day of school for God's sake. I mean, if you were going to pick a fight with him, couldn't you have at least waited until later?"

"Nope," Naruto answered.

"This isn't the first time he's gotten in trouble at school because Sasuke pissed him off. You would think that people would've realized that by now," Kiba said though it was just to put in his two cents.

"I know that! But it doesn't mean I'm not mad about it. This has been going on for months now and I would really like it if it came to an end and soon," Sakura said before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"She does have a point, Naruto-kun. When is this whole feud thing with Sasuke going to stop anyway?" Hinata asked while eating forkfuls of her salad.

"When we're both dead and buried, but at this point, I'd rather he be in the ground first," Naruto answered.

The rest of the group gave a collective sigh, knowing that it could very well last that long if given the chance. It was amazing how something as beautiful as love could turn into something as ugly as hate in such a relatively short time span.

"You know, if you and Sasuke were the only ones who got detention, I would've let it go already. But since you managed to take four other people down with you, it's gonna be a while before I let it slide," Sakura said.

"Yeah yeah, I know. You can bust my balls all you like, but it's not like I'm going to apologize now that it's already over and done with," Naruto replied, his forehead resting on the slightly cool lunch table.

"But Sakura. You're giving him hell about getting detention, but he hasn't really said why he got it in the first place," Ino said, fixing her make-up in the process of talking.

"Oh yeah. So besides a 'Sasuke look', was there any other reason why you got yourself into trouble?"

"Well…"

Now that was a pretty touchy subject. It wasn't entirely because of the fact that Sasuke had passed out one of his looks, but that he had directed it at Gaara when the redhead hadn't done anything wrong in the first place. Besides being in Naruto's space of course. Sasuke had a real jealous bone when it came to that sort of thing. But Naruto wasn't exactly sure what Sakura's response would be if he had told her that it was because Sasuke had looked at his crush the wrong way. He had only just met Gaara a few hours and to even began to explain that his affections had started to run that deep was pretty embarrassing to the blonde.

"Ummm Naruto?"

The whole group looked at the origin of the voice to find that Gaara was standing off to Naruto's side. Naruto sat up somewhat from his initial position and looked up at Gaara.

"Yeah?"

"C-Can I umm…talk to you for a m-minute?" Gaara asked, looking more than a bit uneasy.

"I don't see why not," Naruto said with a smile, getting up from his chair and leading Gaara to another table.

Giving another sigh, Sakura said, "Ok then. So can any of you tell me why?"

Making sure they were at least a few tables away from his friends first, Naruto decided to set down with Gaara at one of the empty tables in the back of the lunchroom. As far as he could tell, the only reason why anybody sat at the tables in the back was so they could be alone, which was why he was relieved at the fact that Sasuke was nowhere to be seen at that moment in time or even in the large room at all. But it would certainly sent some signals to the other students and it was only a matter of time before the rumors kicked into high gear. In moments like these, Naruto would wonder why he had put up with all these gossiping people for so long. It was like the entire school was full of them, which, as a result, made it nearly impossible to have some 'private time' with someone without incessant chatter about it being all over the school in a matter of hours, if not minutes what with the power of text messaging at nearly everybody's deposal.

"So what is you wanna talk about?" Naruto asked, taking a seat next to Gaara.

"I-I was wondering why you got so mad at that boy, b-but you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Gaara said, surprised at himself because he had hardly stuttered at all.

Naruto also caught that and he couldn't help but smile. It was a either a sign that Gaara was trying to keep himself together and failing slightly at it or that the redhead was getting used to being around Naruto. The latter was the more plausible reason, not to mention better sounding in Naruto's mind.

"Oh he and I have been at each other's throat for months now. It's no big deal."

"I see, but--"

"I should probably just go ahead say this now."

Gaara gave him a funny look, showing that he wasn't sure what the blonde was trying to convey to him.

"Listen, I'm sorry that I got you in detention on your first day. If I had known that was gonna happen, I might've not done it at all."

"It's okay. I don't mind."

"You know, I think you're the only person I know that would ever say something like that when it came to getting detention. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Well, you didn't do anything until he gave me that look."

"Damn, you saw that?"

Gaara give a short nod, looking a little embarrassed because he was still talking to Naruto, not to mention the fact that he had actually said more in the last couple of minutes than what little was said since he had met Naruto during first period.

"Anyway," Naruto started, "I already don't like Sasuke as it is, but I have a real problem when it comes to him treating my friends like crap. Especially by giving them one of those looks. You have no idea how much they piss me off."

Gaara gave him a nervous look before asking, "I…I'm one of your friends?"

"Yeah of course," Naruto answered, flashing the redhead a big grin, "Do you think I would have risked getting detention for a stranger? No way."

At this reply, Gaara blushed a just the tiniest bit, causing Naruto to give an even bigger smile. He had to admit, all this shy behavior was pretty endearing, but it also made him wonder why Gaara seemed so embarrassed about having regular social contact with other teenagers. A random person on the street would never be able to tell that he was the shy type just by looking at his choice of clothing. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sakura waving him back over to their table. He squinted his eyes slightly in irritation, but he figured that he had better go back, lest he would make Sakura angrier than she already was.

"Listen, I have to get back to my other friends before I get dragged back by force. Do you want to come sit down with us, Gaara?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"…I-I can't. I have to go to the library."

Naruto made a disgusted sound at the word 'library' for one reason and one reason only. Books. He hated books, but it was mostly because he had more bad experiences with books than good. Sure he liked to read them from time to time, but after getting hit in the back of the head with them and having them dropped on his desk to wake him up if he had fallen asleep in class a few times, it was no surprise that he had found himself wanting to go all-out pyromaniac and burn them until only the ashes were left laying on the ground.

"Oh well, maybe some other time. See ya," Naruto said, getting up from his chair and walking off with a wave.

He resisted the urge to look back and see if Gaara had hauled his black pants wearing ass out of the lunchroom as quickly as he could. Naruto knew he was a huge pervert at heart, but he felt a little ashamed at himself for thinking dirty thoughts about what was under his newfound friend's clothes. One couldn't really make out a definite shape of anything below the waistline, thanks to the redhead's baggy pants so there was no real way of telling if he actually had an 'ass' to speak of, not counting taking off his pants of course. Naruto was about to slap himself in the face because of his perverted thoughts, but he then realized that he would look pretty stupid if he just slapped himself for no reason in the middle of the room. Instead, he opted to just eat some of his friend's food and hope that it would help to get rid of his thoughts. But he wouldn't have to steal it in the first place if he wasn't such a pervert and if he had remembered to bring some money with him when he was getting ready for school that morning.

"So is there any reason that made you wave me back over here?" Naruto asked in an almost irritable tone, steal a bread roll from Kiba's tray.

"What, are you upset because you had to stop talking to your man-crush?" Sakura asked jokingly.

"Hahahaha. Man-crush. You haven't used that one in a while, Sakura," Kiba snickered before taking a sip of his milk.

"Why don't you keep laughing, Kiba? Maybe that milk will come out of your nose. But seriously, did you just call me back over here to poke fun at me?" Naruto asked Sakura.

"As tempting as that sounds, that's not it. I just wanted to say that I think it's pretty sweet of you to defend the honor of someone you barely know yet have the hots for."

"Huh? Wait a min--"

"Hinata told me what happened."

Naruto shot a look at Hinata that basically said 'did you have to tell her?'. Like her cousin Neji, Hinata was a person who would tattle at the drop of a hat, but she would crack now and then if enough pressure just so happened to be applied to the right places. And since they had all been friends their early childhood days, it was no surprise that Sakura knew just where to apply that certain amount of pressure in order to make Hinata spill the beans.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. She forced it out of me," Hinata said with an apologetic smile.

"It's okay. So, Sakura, does this mean you're still mad at me?"

"Not as much as before, but I'm still pretty upset with you."

"…I'll take you to the mall after school tomorrow if you let it go now."

"You read my mind."

This had become very a common thing between Naruto and Sakura in all their years of friendship. She would get mad at Naruto for something that he had done or caused and all Naruto had to do was offer to take her to the mall and it was water under the bridge within seconds. Jiraiya had made a pretty good living with his 'novels' so the occasional splurge at the mall in order to make Sakura happy was no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Besides, Naruto's weekly allowance was a hell of a lot more than most people with minimum wage jobs would ever see in six months of constant work.

"But you have to do something first before I even take you anywhere near the mall," Naruto said, a devious smile on his whiskered face.

"I had a feeling you would do this eventually. What do you want?"

"Get yourself a detention."

"What?!"

Sakura, being the almost perfect little girl that she is, never got into any serious trouble that didn't involve being caught texting a few times in class, much less receive a trip to the hell within hell that was detention. This challenge would be very hard, if not practically impossible for her to accomplish.

"It's either that or no mall."

Sakura puffed up a bit, but sighed and said, "Fine. How long do I have to get it?"

"Before the end of the day."

"But it's already half over!"

"Your point?"

"…I don't even no what day they do detention!"

"Monday."

"But that's today!"

"Once again, you point?"

"Oh come on, Sakura. It'll be a good experience for you. Besides, with all of us in detention, we can help fight off Sasuke if it comes to that. Plus, Naruto will have some quality time with Gaara," Kiba said, egging Sakura on.

"You got detention too, Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked.

Everyone in their little group had noticed that Hinata had started adding the '-kun' honorific to Kiba's name as of late. Naruto reckoned that she was starting to crush on Kiba, but she wasn't being overly obvious about it so it was difficult to tell exactly why she changed the previous honorific.

"Yup. Back talking to a teacher."

"Again?"

"Anyway," Naruto said, trying to get them back on track, "so what do you say, Sakura?"

"I'll do it, but I won't like it," Sakura said with a huff.

After that was said, the bell rang for the students to begin heading to their fourth and final class of the day, the loud sound making Neji jump a little bit because he was so into his book that he hadn't been paying any attention to anything else in particular.

"Bell catch you off-guard again, Neji?" Naruto teasingly asked.

"Shut up," Neji said before picking up his bag and proceeding to walk out of the lunchroom with the rest of the students.

Smirking to himself, Naruto got up from his chair, quickly making it out into the hallway and opening his locker. Upon opening the locker, he made a disappointed groan when he looked at his class schedule that was taped onto the blue locker door. In all of the chaos of the morning and part of the afternoon, he had forgotten what his fourth block class was.

Algebra. Math was always his worst subject since grade school and to say that he was not looking forward to it was an immense understatement.

"Dammit. This is just my luck."

Author's Notes: …Dammit! I shouldn't have put that Naruto was eating a cookie cuz now I want a cookie really badly! Really really badly… Hmph! *pouts* But I hafta say that found myself laughing pretty hard when I was typing that stuff about Naruto being a perv. I found it funny for some reason and it took me a little while to stifle my laughter so I could finish typing up the paragraph, not to mention the rest of the chapter. Hehehehe… Oh, and by the way, the whole 'eating food to get rid of perverted thoughts' thing, I'm not really sure if it works. I have yet to try. But now that I'm thinking about it, it's kind of like a reference to my KibaNaru story because I wrote something like that in the 3rd chapter, which was published weeks before this chapter even came into being mind you. Oh well, it works out in the end so whatever. On another note, please Review!!


	4. Math Time Bonding

Sorry for the wait! All right guys, this is the chapter where you find out why (or at least partially why…I don't know) I titled this story 'I Love You, Kitsune-chan'. And just to put this out there…I fucking hate anything Math related… Ehhh. It's evil I say! Eviiiiiiil!! Oh yeah, DarkAngelJudas? There's a lot more Gaara in this chapter so there should be no reason for you to whine at lack of Gaara. And I know shy Gaara is so kawaii. I wanted him to be that way. Not that I couldn't have used the normal Gaara, but having an ex-psychopathic serial killer attending high school would be kinda scary. Ya never know when those old tendencies might pop up! O.O! Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. At least I don't think I do… *shifty eyes*

Chapter 4: Math Time Bonding

Naruto almost felt as if his feet were dragging themselves on the tiled hallway floor, trying to prevent him from going to his dreaded Algebra class in their own little way. And if this were any other situation, he would have agreed immediately and gotten the hell out of there as fast as his legs would take him. But there were too many punishments lined up for him if he decided to skip his last class of the day. The blonde would get into more trouble, both at school and at home, Sakura would be mad at him all over again, and a whole bunch of other things he didn't want to think about.

The only thing that would make him feel better about going to this god awful class was if he had someone to talk to during it so he wouldn't die from excessive boredom and mental anguish.

Naruto had just barely passed all his other Math classes and he was looking forward to not having to take another one in his last year of high school since his diploma only required him to take three Math related courses. But a supposed mistake in the paperwork made him have to retake Algebra. It made him wonder how the school officials kept their jobs since they tended to mess up so much. He had been screwed over by them before and he doubted that it would end anytime soon.

When he did reach the classroom door, he figured he might as well just go in and get it over with as quickly as possible.

The room was simple enough, two rows of long tables with an already great number of students sitting at them. He could tell most of them were freshmen considering how short they were, not to mention the fact that they still looked completely lost even though they were in the right room. Naruto almost felt like some sort of giant when he compared himself to all these new high school students. He didn't feel like making friends with a collective group of newcomers and he almost lost hope for his survival until he saw that Gaara sitting at the last table in the first row, his gaze fixed out the window.

If Naruto weren't afraid of being looked at in a strange fashion, he probably would have made a noise resembling a squeal while jumping up and down. Just because he was gay didn't mean he had to throw his masculinity out the door when he felt really excited. If anything, his random bursts of inner enthusiasm almost made him seem more masculine than usual, which was pretty odd to not only himself, but to the few that knew of these little incidences. Making sure that he kept his pace as casual as possible, the blonde made his way over to Gaara's table.

"I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I am to see you here," Naruto said after quietly sitting down next to Gaara, the redhead jumping a little at the sound of the teen's voice coming from nowhere.

"N-Naruto? W-What are you doing h-here?" Gaara asked, still slightly surprised.

"Why, I'm in this class, silly."

Now Naruto had not meant to call Gaara 'silly' by any stretch of the imagination. It practically slipped out before he could even try to stop it. Some things just don't get caught by the screen inbetween his brain and his mouth and that word, unfortunately, was one of the many that flew by unnoticed. Gaara blushed a little bit, but otherwise did not react further.

"What about you? Why are you in this class?" Naruto asked, leaning back in his chair.

"W-Well…I-I have to since there's no other M-Math class for me to t-take."

Naruto gave him a quizzical look, mostly because he didn't understand what Gaara meant. The school they attended did have a number of Math related classes and for Gaara to say that there was no other Math class for him to take was somewhat odd. Of course there was the chance that Gaara had no choice in the matter, but that still didn't really answer the question at hand.

"I'm gonna be honest here. That doesn't make sense to me."

"…You know that I-I was h-home schooled, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered in a confused tone.

"I-I was always very good at t-this subject at h-home so when it came t-time for me to start my high school level s-studies, my parents decided t-that I didn't need to t-take Algebra."

"I see. Wait a second. Then why are you taking it now?"

"For m-my diploma."

There were many things in the world that Naruto didn't understand and two of those things were happening right in front of him. For some reason, Gaara was talking a great deal more now than he had all day. Not that Naruto considered it a negative in his book, but it made him wonder about Gaara's reasoning. And the other thing was how Gaara could be so gothic and menacing looking, yet still be so people shy and nervous. He acted more like a meek little freshman, but in all accounts, he probably could be regarded as a freshman since this was his first time in high school. Either way, Gaara was talking more and Naruto liked it very much.

"So you basically just skipped over regular Algebra completely?"

"Y-Yes."

Naruto almost felt like face palming himself when the truth was confirmed. His newfound crush was a Math genius. Not that Gaara's prowess in Math was a problem, but Naruto would feel like an idiot when he needed help on a problem that would probably come naturally to the redhead. He wasn't exactly the most intelligent person in the world, but dealing with someone who was smarter than him at something was kind of frustrating, whether they were show-offs about it or not. But when taking Gaara's personality into account, it was highly unlikely for him to be a snobby smart kid or get frustrated at someone else's lack of intellect.

Their conversation ended there--not to mention all of the other exchanges going on in the room—because of a series of coughs at the teacher's desk. Naruto had been so preoccupied with Gaara that he had not seen the new Algebra teacher sitting at the front of the room. He had heard that there was a new teacher from Hinata that morning while they were walking to school together, but this was the first he had seen of him all day. Naruto chuckled quietly to himself, thinking about changing Hinata's nickname to 'The Informer' since she knew a lot about what was going on in the school and just about everything in general.

Gekko Hayate.

That was the name scrawled on the chalkboard. Naruto made a face at the name, but he made an even stranger expression at the condition his teacher was in. His features appeared sickly and kind of pale with dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he needed a doctor's appointment and about a month of nonstop sleeping. How he had managed to be here on the first day of school—or even at all—was anyone's guessing, but Naruto was just glad that he didn't have another no-show teacher. The blonde wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle a room full of bewildered freshman and his latest crush without the presence of an adult who had at least some authority over them, otherwise, he'd go insane within five minutes. And not the type of insane that likes to parade itself around street corners in the hopes of earning some cash either.

Hayate wasn't paying much attention to what the rest of the class was doing, but was reading a book. And then he spoke in a voice that sounded almost as sickly as he looked.

"Since I don't have a lesson plan today, you all can just talk amongst yourselves."

Most of the teens in the class made a face that said 'then why are you making one now?' But since Hayate wasn't looking, he didn't react at all, choosing instead to continue reading his book. Naruto could feel his left eye twitching, but he wasn't exactly sure as to why it was. Annoyance was probably the main cause, but he wasn't really sure. He had met his fair share of teachers throughout the years, but this one was either lazy or ill prepared. To him, it was just more evidence that practically proved that the school officials were slowly losing their wits when it came to employing new teachers.

"Geez…they'll hire anybody these days," Naruto said quietly, propping his legs up on the table.

He was hoping that he'd get some sort of reply from Gaara, but the redhead didn't say a word, his eyes once again locked out the window. It almost looked like he wanted something to take him away from the room he was in. Naruto hated school as much as the next student, but the way the redhead was staring out the window made the blonde think that Gaara didn't even want to be here in the first place. Naruto did want to know what was bothering Gaara and his need to have some sort of verbal contact during this part of the day basically provided a way for him to pry.

"So how're you liking it here in high school?"

"…I-It's ok," Gaara said, looking away with a blush.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. If Naruto didn't know any better, he would have thought that Gaara was the guy version of the old Hinata. Hinata's temporary shyness was cute to him while it lasted and maybe that was why he was starting to like Gaara more by the minute. But, thanks to his overactive imagination, he started to wonder how long that bashfulness would last if they started dating. If anything, Naruto would have to play 'mentor' role if that ever happened. And while he did hope that Gaara warm up to him eventually, a part of him wanted to just go ahead and ask him out without thinking of the consequences.

Naruto was in no way timid in any aspect, even when it came to the more physical part of a romantic relationship. Thanks to Sasuke, any coyness that may have been there before had been completely erased from existence. Unconsciously, Naruto made a strange face when he started to remember his intimate days with the Uchiha. He had started thinking about Gaara and that somehow made him made Sasuke get into his thoughts, which caused him to feel very upset and displeased.

"Ummm…N-Naruto?"

Gaara's voice penetrated his deep thinking and that's when he realized that he had hit himself in the face with the palm of his hand. Humiliation seemed to want to play with him at this part of the day most of the time so he wasn't really surprised at his sudden, not to mention random, act of self-harm. But it was still kind of embarrassing to smack himself for no reason whatsoever.

"A-Are you okay?" Gaara asked quietly.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Well, I-I don't think that my p-parents will be happy s-since I got detention on my f-first day."

"Oh, right. Well, I'll come over and defend your honor if I have to."

Naruto really meant that. 'Anything for a friend.' It had been a personal motto of his since grade school and he really did consider the redhead his companion and the fact that he started having romantic feelings for Gaara made him want to be all the more protective. The blonde's standards when it came to making and keeping friends weren't really that high anyway. He was always a friendly, good-natured person most of the time so it was really hard not like him.

"N-No, that's ok," Gaara replied softly, a tiny smile on his face.

Naruto gazed at Gaara for a moment before closing his eyes and sighing lightly.

"What?"

"Is that really all there is to it?"

Gaara remained silent, his face brimming with a deep shade of red. Naruto would definitely have to control himself when Gaara got like this. He was already on the verge of wanting to squeeze the life out of Gaara while squealing something along the lines of 'You're just so cute!' It was at times like these that Naruto blamed his hormones for making him have weird urges.

"Come on now. I already told you that I think of you as a friend. You can tell me anything."

"…I…I guess I'm just n-not used to b-being around all t-these people…"

"See? Was that so bad?"

Gaara gave another tiny smile and shook his head. Progress was being made here and Naruto only had a little time to celebrate before he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He refrained from texting in school, mostly because he didn't want to have to put up with having his phone being taken away if he got caught. And him made it clear to his friends that when they were in school; they could only text him if it absolutely couldn't wait until later. Naruto pulled his phone out and hid it the best he could, opening it up to see that the text had come from Sakura. Grinning slyly, he read the message.

'All right, you stupid Kitsune. I got a detention… -.-'

"I am not a stupid Kitsune," Naruto said to himself.

He caught Gaara looking at him strangely out of the corner of his eye before turning away. He obviously didn't mean to hear what Naruto had said, but it really couldn't have been helped.

"Oh, right, you don't know. The six of us came up with nicknames for each other all long time ago. Well, Neji doesn't have one, but that's because…yeah, that's another story in and of itself. Anyway, Kitsune is what they call me sometimes."

"Why do t-they call you t-that?"

Naruto smiled at him and asked, "You can't tell?"

The strange whisker marks on his cheeks were enough of a clue, but that wasn't the only reason. Ever since they were little, Naruto was always the mischievous and sneaky one. People could tell just by looking into his cerulean eyes that he was going to be a troublemaker. Plus, he just had that certain unexplainable air about him that essentially said there was more to him than meets the eye. Foxes, throughout Japanese mythology, had these exact characteristics, which helped in the choosing of his nickname during grade school. Gaara looked at him for a few moments in advance to realization dawning on his features

"…O-Oh," Gaara finally said.

Naruto continued to smile as he typed out a message to Sakura.

'Sweet! So what did ya do??'

A minute later, a reply arrived.

'I'll tell you later. :p'

Naruto frowned at the phone, his curiosity getting the better of him. But, knowing Sakura, he really would have to wait until later to find out what deed the pink-haired girl had committed in order to land herself in detention. He quickly typed out a response.

'U're no fun! DX'

After he sent the message, he put his phone on silent and placed it back in his pocket. A sudden idea came to his mind, making him smile even wider than he had been beforehand. He would be going out on a limb, but he was Uzumaki Naruto, and Uzumaki Naruto did not take the time to think things through like he should. Today was an apparent testament to that little fun fact.

"Hey, do you have a cell phone?" Naruto asked Gaara.

A little thrown off by the question, Gaara answered, "Y-Yes."

"Can I have your number?"

"W-W-What?"

Gaara had clearly never been asked that before, seeing as how he stuttered more and his face looked like it was on fire. Naruto really had his work cut out for him on this one, but he was definitely up to the challenge of making Gaara more people friendly and social.

"It's just so we can keep in touch. Here, write it on this," Naruto said, handing Gaara a piece of paper from his binder.

His timing couldn't have been better because after Gaara was through writing down his number with a shaking hand, the bell that signalled the end of fourth block rang. Gaara got up shortly after, waving shyly at Naruto prior to walking out the door with the other freshman. Naruto folded up the paper with a satisfied smile, putting it in his pocket and picking up his things at the same time and heading straight for the door.

"Hmmm…so you're Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto turned around when he was halfway there to find Hayate way too close for comfort and staring at him almost creepily. This teacher was certainly going to be a strange one to deal with. At least according to Naruto anyway.

"Yeah, that's right," Naruto said, leaning back a little.

"I was told about you by the other teachers."

"I see…"

"You're too open with your flirting, you know," Hayate said with a small smile.

Naruto made a face that could best be described as 'WTF?! How did you know what I was doing?!' and he decided to just leave now before anything else happened to him with his new teacher. He got to his locker as fast as he could while being engulfed by the sea of students trying to leave the school in the fastest way possible. Now there was only one more thing on Naruto's agenda before he would have to go home to an angry godfather.

Detention.

Author's Notes: Little siblings are annoying… -_-! Sorry, it's just that I've been looking for a green CD I had burned some songs on for close to a week now and my sister had had it this whole time, probably even longer. But she keeps making up stories like "I got those songs on iTunes and I just put them on a green CD" (yeah right…) and basically saying that it's hers. But that's not the kicker. They are in the exact same order and some of the songs can't even be found on iTunes (music from the Xenosaga game series. You can't find that on iTunes and I know that for a fact. I had to look that shit up on the Internet, still do actually) and I didn't even tell her the titles of some of the Japanese songs on it, much less who the band was (it's MUCC by the way. I love them). "I just picked some Japanese songs that sounded cool" my ass… Ain't no friggin' way… And she done wrote on it, too… That's other thing. Part of her believing that it's hers is because she has her name on it.

*sigh* God, I needed that. …Anyway…Awwwwwwwwww how cute! But OMG! I love Hayate so I just had to put him in here! I wish he wasn't a short-lived character though… Why are there so many short-lived characters in Naruto?! Like Kimimaro! T.T! I swear… Well, at least they let Hayate live in Naruto Abridged on You-Tube. "Oh yeah. Hayate ain't goin' nowhere." Lol! But I digress. Please Review!


	5. Casual Conversation: Detention Style

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I became writer's block unwilling bitch for a while on some of my stories, including this one! I know this update took a long time coming, but at least its finally here, right? It doesn't help that I keep coming up with new ideas… Blah. And dragonlilly1993? Please…calm down. You're going to hurt yourself in all your capitalized excitement. I enjoy your enthusiasm, but I got a partial heart attack from just reading those reviews, especially the one for chapter 4. Reviews should not be hazardous to the fanfic author's health. Remember that, people. And thank you, i3Gaara, for sympathizing with me. I got that CD back and it's all good. In fact, I listened to it while typing this. But gosh, I squealed so much while writing this… Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I get paid for writing this story. That'd be pretty freaking sweet if I did though…

Chapter 5: Casual Conversation: Detention Style

Naruto really wasn't too enthusiastic about going to detention, but seeing as how he was hauling some serious ass towards the detention room—almost knocking down some lingering freshmen in the process—having an attitude of 'let's just do this and get it the fuck over with' most of the time did interfere with what he really wanted to do.

In truth, he was conflicted, his brain trying to choose between 'aw, screw detention!' and 'it won't be so bad, right?' He'd skipped detention plenty of times before, the usual penalty for such an act being suspension, which he really didn't mind at all since school was boring as hell anyway and it gave him time to be by himself. And since that douchebag Sasuke was going to be there as well, it basically made him want to bail even more. Naruto had practically snapped earlier while in the Art room, he just couldn't trust himself if he was pushed into the same situation a second time. And considering their tumultuous relationship, someone was bound to be in a hospital bed before the day was over if it happened again. Naruto would have to make damn sure that is wasn't him though. Jiraiya would already be pissed at him getting an additional detention marked down on his record, but he would most definitely not appreciate him losing a fight.

Forget being injured in a hospital bed, losing a fight was way worse to Jiraiya. Naruto had already been through that once after spring break in junior year as a result of yet another award winning dispute with the infamous Uchiha, no way in hell he was going through that guilt trip a second time. He could practically hear Jiraiya vehemently yelling at him about the fact that he didn't raise a wimpy son who couldn't defend himself if necessary.

Naruto stopped outside the closed detention room door, his mental dilemma still waging an unforgiving war of 'I don't wanna go, but I do at the same time'. He really wanted to spend more time with Gaara because he was still a little upset about earning the redhead his first detention. And obviously because he was starting to become a little one-track minded when it came to Gaara. He now understood what it felt like to be an overly hormonal blonde cheerleader who was in some sort of obsessive love with a really stuck up pretty boy prep.

Not that the same thing applied to him and Gaara by any means, but it was really the only thing he could think of that had at least some likeness to what he was going through. Hanging out with someone like Ino since grade school and meeting every single one of her useless boyfriends did that to him.

Naruto had to stifle a laugh at his strange comparison. He would've probably been the cheerleader in that sort of arrangement because frankly, he was gayer than the creation of tangelos, but not quite as open about it. The only real downside to that scenario was that he'd be a girl chasing after a worthless guy. And the pomp-pomps of course. Ino had hit him enough with her own set of blue pomp-pomps during middle school that he never wanted to see such a horrid excuse of excitement expressing paraphernalia ever again for the rest of his god-forsaken life if he could help it.

He sighed heavily, knowing that Sakura would not so literally chew his ear off if he skipped. Even more so since he had practically forced her to get a detention in order to satisfy her inbreed need to shop. Resigning to just getting it over with, Naruto opened the door to what would probably be his untimely doom at the hands of the school system's hellish form of punishment. He had barely made two steps into the room before Kiba grabbed him into a headlock and pulled him in the rest of the way. Normally, Naruto would have accepted Kiba's playful act of friendly affection, but today was just not one of those days where he felt like fooling around in such a manner.

"About friggin' time you got here, man!" Kiba yelled.

"Let me go, dammit!" Naruto shouted back, struggling to get out of Kiba's hold on him.

A lot of laughing from Kiba and brief exchanges of a few choice words later, Naruto managed to free himself. He shook himself out, blonde hair going all over the place.

"What the crap are you so happy about!"

"Take a look around and you'll know, stupid," Kiba replied, closing the door behind him.

Naruto did as he was told and he noticed the absence of a certain Uchiha bastard and a supervising teacher. Everyone else who was supposed to attend was sitting in randomly spaced out desks, but the lack of the other two was somewhat strange to Naruto.

"Uh…what the-"

"Well," Kiba began, "obviously, Sasuke skipped out. And our teacher had some sort of emergency to handle so he left. Kakashi-sensei is going to be checking in on us, but he's already said that he's only coming by once. Though, you'd know this if you had showed up earlier."

Naruto brusquely smacked Kiba in the back of the head for commenting on his lateness. Taking the small amount of abuse with stride, Kiba took his seat next to a slightly blushing Hinata. There had to be something going on there, but that wasn't important at the moment. However, Naruto would still pester the hell out of one of them about it later when he had the opportunity.

If he had to give his opinion on the matter, this was probably the best detention he ever chose to willingly serve in his life. A real stroke of good luck on his part, if he did say so himself. The gods must have chosen to smile on him at this part of the day because this would have otherwise been one of the worse days of his life so far. Besides meeting Gaara and getting back together with his friends, today really was a bad day, one that would forever been engraved into his memory. And all because of a certain ex-boyfriend who shall hopefully stay unmentioned for the next hour or so. Naruto felt like smacking Sasuke in the face and then running off while yelling, 'thanks a lot, you ass'. But the only thing that would give him—besides a sense of accomplishment with the tit-for-tat measure—was mostly likely another trip to the dreaded detention room.

Besides, he was confident enough in his fighting abilities that he could at least seriously injure Sasuke if they ever got to scrapping again, which—looking at their track record—would probably happen sooner than later.

Kiba looked over at Naruto—who looked like today was his birthday or something—and asked, "Are you just gonna stand there all day or are you gonna sit down, dumbass?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow at his friend and questioned, "Who are you calling a dumbass?"

"You, dumbass."

"Oh yeah?"

Naruto put on a playful smile, practically tackling Kiba and making them and the desk fall over. Thankfully, it was one of those desks than had no armrest on either side so Kiba's back hit the floor instead with Naruto tumbling down on top of him and the desk caught on their legs. But either way, the landing was definitely not a soft one. The desk had made a loud clattering noise upon hitting the tiled floor, accompanying equally noisy thuds and even more cursing.

"Ok," Naruto began with a bit of pain in his voice, "not one of my better ideas…"

"You think?" Kiba retorted, pushing the teen off him and straightening up.

"Really smooth, guys," Sakura commented.

"Shut up!" Naruto and Kiba shouted in unison.

Ino, who was looking on from her seat next to Sakura, then said sarcastically, "I can see this is going to be fun already."

The group then laughed simultaneously, the kind of candid laughter used on idiotic sitcoms, but that's what made it all the more funny.

Naruto glanced over at Gaara seated far across the room, teal eyes gazing over at them occasionally before coming back to stare at his empty desktop. It didn't take a brain surgeon to know that the redhead was feeling a little left out with this group, seeing as he was the newcomer and they were all virtually family by now. At least, that's how Naruto viewed his posse after all these years together in school. They were such a close-knit group by now that they really were like kin to him, who really had no blood relations with anybody, being an adopted orphan and all.

And there was no way he was going to let Gaara sit there and watch him have fun with his friends. That would be just plain cruel if he didn't allow his crush to become familiarized with his group. And it wasn't like Naruto could keep the shy redhead all to himself, lest he'd come across as the controlling type, much like a certain bastard.

Walking over to Gaara and sitting backwards in a desk, the blonde greeted, "Hey there, lonely."

He had meant for the greeting to sound friendly, but now that he was thinking about it, it really sounded like he was trying to pick up someone at a bar after having a few drinks. He would have to make a mental note to hold off on that for a while, at least until they started going out. If they ever got around to dating, that is. Naruto almost wanted to smack himself in the face for the second time that day. He really was starting to think too much, which resulted in him doubting himself over if he would even able to befriend Gaara, much less be his boyfriend. Jiraiya always did warn him about that sort of thing—in that Naruto was an intelligent boy, but thinking about something too often made his smartness come back around stupid after going around in circle for an excessive amount of times.

"H-Hey," Gaara replied, his usual blush once again appearing on his pale face.

Though if Naruto was correct in what he saw, it looked like the blush had increased in redness. If he had to guess, the poor teen was probably still embarrassed about giving out his cell phone number. But it was just a speculation since Naruto was in no way a mind reader, nor did he ever want to be. Thoughts were made personal for a damn reason.

"What're you doing sittin' all the way over here?"

"U-Umm…"

Gaara looked slightly uncomfortable, as in his arms appeared tense and pulled closer to his frame and his eyes held an evident shine of uncertainty. Getting this kid to open up was going to be hell, but Naruto was certainly up for the challenge, however creepy it might sound to other people. Being such a friendly person by nature, it frustrated the blonde whenever he met someone that was reclusive for some reason or another. Which was the main reason why he bothered himself with Sasuke in the first place, to his own chagrin. After going through all that mess, Naruto was sure that he could do anything if he set his mind to it.

"Hey, you're comfortable with me, right?" Naruto asked a little hesitantly, unsure of the answer.

Gaara paused for a moment before replying, "I-I guess…"

"Then I think you should be all right with my friends."

Naruto then took hold of a pale hand and stood them both up. While Gaara did blush profusely—as was expected—he said nothing against being lead towards the other detention occupants, who had arranged their desks in a circle with two that were empty. The pair then sat down side-by-side, Naruto finally releasing Gaara's hand when the redhead was seated. The blonde looked up after giving Gaara a carefree smile just to find that he was being stared at quite openly.

"W-What?" he asked, a twinge of discomfort coloring his tone.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Sakura said from her place next to him.

"…You're a horrible liar, Sakura."

"So are you!"

"Jeez, are you on your period or something?"

"What!" Sakura yelled at him, a promise of death in her eyes.

Everyone else could see that Naruto had just stepped into a field full of highly explosive landmines, but being the oblivious blonde teen that he was from time to time when it came to girl issues, he didn't see anything wrong with his accusation.

"Well…it's just that you're yelling at me a lot more than usual-"

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Just shut up."

As it were, Naruto seemed to have a death wish and began, "But-"

"Shut. Up."

Kakashi, who was staring at the small group silently with his uncovered eye after poking his head into the detention room, suddenly interrupted their awkward conversation. All of the seniors gazed back at him just as silently, a stare-off seeming to be in the midst for some odd reason. And to the normal passerby, it would have looked exceptionally strange, given that Kakashi was a very peculiar man to begin with.

After a few moments of peace, Kakashi finally said, "All right, I checked up on you guys. Later."

The teacher shut the door and began walking away when he heard the teenagers burst out laughing from behind him. He was apparently better at making high school students laugh than actually doing his job like he was supposed to, as well as giving off bizarre first impressions. Needless to say, summer break had done nothing to tarnish his reputation as an extreme weirdo with a work ethic that left much to be desired from time to time.

The rather loud expressions of amusement subsided and the verbal exchanges continued.

Naruto began, "Yeah, that was…"

"Friggin' weird," Kiba completed with one eye open and a fist against his cheek.

"Yeah, pretty much."

Hinata looked at her watch, putting on a frown as she said, "It hasn't even been fifteen minutes yet. He's just going to leave us here all alone?"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Hinata," Neji commented, "Kakashi-sensei's never one to be…by the book too often."

"Hmmmm…"

"We're not raiding the school, Naruto," Sakura said, casting an exasperated glance at the plotting blonde.

"Aww! You're no fun…"

"I don't feel like getting into more trouble. Besides, there are most likely some teachers still here."

"You're probably right," Naruto murmured with a sigh.

"Hey," Ino started, gazing over at Gaara with eyes fleshly coated with mascara and eyeliner, "we're kind of ignoring our new edition here, guys."

"Y'know, it's kinda disturbing that you said that just after you finished fixing your makeup…again."

Needless to say, Naruto was feeling a little jealous. He knew that Ino wouldn't try to steal another person's man intentionally, even though Gaara technically wasn't Naruto's boyfriend and the redhead wasn't even the type Ino went for most of the time. He was just hoping that the girl code still applied in this circumstance, though he was definitely not a girl by any means. Because by all accounts, Naruto had seen the overly gothic Gaara first and he didn't particularly feel like fighting over him with one of his friends. His life was already awkward enough without having that kind of drama going on.

A pale blonde brow twitched as Ino countered, "I would have figured that you would have been the one all over-"

"So, Gaara, besides black obviously, do you have another favorite color?" Naruto interrupted quickly, desperate to change the topic.

Though, his choice could have been a lot better were it not for the fact that he was afraid of Gaara distancing himself from him if the redhead were to figure out that Naruto was going after him romantically. A better question would have been for him to ask Gaara if he was even into guys, but that would have to wait another day after they became better acquainted.

Gaara jumped slightly at being addressed and stuttered, "U-Uhhh… I-I guess i-it would have to b-be b-blue…"

A furious blush exploded on his face, as well as on Naruto's. Embarrassing moments seemed to be a recurring theme on the agenda for one Uzumaki Naruto today. But even he had to admit that while the answer did make him feel a bit self-conscious, seeing as how his eyes were a rather pretty shade of blue—which is probably why Gaara blushed in the first place—the shyness laced into the other's tone just made him seem even more cute, if that was even possible by now.

"O-Oh," Naruto said back, his eyes softening a little.

Two separate reactions occurred at the same time after a few seconds of peace.

The three girls squealed loudly, "Aww, that's so cute!"

Kiba said under his breath with a hint of sarcasm, "Yeah, that ain't gay at all."

And Neji did absolutely nothing in response, being too absorbed in his new book to pay enough attention to what everyone else was remarking on. Though, he really wouldn't have had much of a comment to spare anyway.

Naruto narrowed his eyes while uttering, "Don't make me come over there, Kiba…"

"Touch me and I'll call rape."

The two teens stared off wordlessly for almost a minute before Naruto conceded, "Clever bastard…"

"You know it."

The rest of detention passed by swiftly, the laughs and various conversations making time go by much quicker to everyone's liking. Naruto was lingering behind to make sure he had everything before he left school grounds. Casting a sideways glance over to the left, he saw Gaara presumably doing the same, rooting around in a large black bag. At this moment, a sudden thought struck him and being a very impulsive person, he decided to act on it.

"Hey, Gaara. You getting a ride home?"

The redhead hesitated before saying, "I-I was supposed to t-take the bus, b-but-"

"Yeah…I know."

Naruto really didn't need to be reminded of the whole detention business. Truthfully, he was hoping that the whole affair would be forgotten by tomorrow, not counting the records and Kurenai, but he didn't care about either of them enough to bother himself about it being brought up in the future. The experience had been a fun one, but that was the only positive attribute about it.

Slinging his bag over his right shoulder, Naruto suggested, "I'll give you a ride home. If that's all right."

"O-Ok."

Naruto smiled as yet another blush appeared on Gaara's face, this one being more subtle and light. If this kept up, Naruto would really have to learn how to restrain himself better when it came to wanting to squeal over how adorable Gaara was being. He stepped out through the door and into the almost creepily quiet hallway with the other following behind him. Frankly, Naruto wanted to leave as soon as possible because school was a strange place to be in with no one else there.

Continuing down to the mostly empty parking lot, the pair stopped at a deep red Mustang with parallel black stripes on the hood and the sides. Naruto had owned this car ever since he got his license, thanks mostly to Jiraiya's occasional generosity and riches, and the vehicle still looked like it was a brand new car.

Gaara stared at the automobile with a bit of fascination for a moment and then looked back up at Naruto, who was grinning like no tomorrow.

"You like it?" the blonde asked while fishing his keys out of his pocket.

"I-It's looks nice, but I'm not t-that much of a c-car junkie…"

"Hahaha, neither am I, but I really-"

Naruto stopped for a few seconds, key already in the lock and a thoughtful expression on his tan face.

"Aw hell!" he suddenly shouted out, smacking himself in the face with his free hand.

Gaara flinched a little at Naruto's random yell, obviously not knowing what was going through the blonde's mind at the moment.

"I forgot to ask Sakura what she did to get detention! Dammit, now I'm never gonna find out!"

Quietness followed before a small chuckle rang out from Gaara, covering his mouth after it had slipped out, his eyes as shy looking as ever. Naruto smiled at that; it may have been a short one, but he had managed to make his crush laugh. In his book, he had just scored a point, if not two.

"Eh, it's okay. Come on, we better go before we get yelled at."

The drive to Gaara's home was a short one, not to mention somewhat quiet besides Gaara giving out directions. It was only after Naruto turned down a corner that he realized that the street he was on looked very familiar.

"Hey, I live on this street," Naruto said, pulling over in front of a quaint looking house.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. But I've never seen you around before."

"We just m-moved here last year, b-but I didn't g-go outside very o-often."

Naruto would have countered that with a 'I would have never guessed', but he kept quiet for his own sake. Potentially offending his newfound friend was not something he felt like doing any time soon, if ever. Gaara picked up his bag from the floor and opened the passenger door, stepping out and slamming it shut behind him and strolling up to the front door. Naruto watched him walk away before making the passenger side window go down on his side.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow, right?" Naruto called out.

Gaara turned around, a little unsure of how to answer, a nervous hand clutching the strap on his bag. He really needed to learn how to open up to other people and maybe now was the time to start doing just that.

With a shaky breath, he replied, "Y-Yeah."

The blonde smiled in return, closing the window and driving to his own residence that was only several houses down at the end of the street. While Jiraiya had enough money to purchase a fancy home in the wealthier part of town, he didn't feel right about raising Naruto so far away from normal society. The house was still a pretty big one however, much like a downsized mansion, and they still had some of the luxuries the rich had at their own expense.

Turning off his car after parking it in the driveway, Naruto walked up to the enterance, a happy smile highlighting his face brightly. When he opened the front door, however, he was met with a very irate looking Jiraiya standing in the doorway, the vein in his forehead on the verge of bursting open.

"You mind telling me where you've been for the past hour and a half, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked, a white eyebrow already twitching in irritation

Chuckling nervously at first, Naruto said, "Well, um… You-You see, what had happened was…"

Author's Notes: Ok, I was asked a question in one of my reviews and I thought that I should answer it here since some of you are probably wondering the same thing (possibly, I don't know). ultimatebishoujo21 asked me where I got the idea for this story from and here is the answer. I knew that I wanted to write a GaaNaru story since I really like the couple and I pretty much had the title from the onset. I was slightly inspired by a ShinoNaru story on adultfanfiction tilted 'Monkey Business' (which has yet to be updated in the past damn year. Oh, the agony) and an AkuRoku (AxelxRoxas, Kingdom Hearts) fic on this site titled 'Easier To Run', at least where the whole 'new student at a high school' thing was concerned. And I thought that having a shy Gaara would be like SO uberly cute. And it just went from there after that. I hope that answers your question. Please Review!


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